THE IMPACT OF USING INFOGRAPHICS TO TEACH GRAMMAR ON EFL STUDENTS’ LEARNING MOTIVATION

Infographics have increasingly been used in English language teaching. However, few studies have been conducted to explore the use of infographics in improving students’ motivation in learning grammar. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of Infographics-based learning on students’ motivation on an English language grammar course. The study employed an experimental research design and the participation of sixty grade-11 students studying in a high school in Mekong Delta, Vietnam. There are two groups including one experimental group (n = 30) that used the Infographics-based learning; and the other a controlled group (n = 30) which was instructed using non- Infographics-based learning technique. A questionnaire was designed to measure students’ motivation after the treatment. Article visualizations

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS IN A VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL READING CLASSROOM

Recently, developing students’ thinking, especially critical thinking (CT), has become a hot issue. Critical thinking has been claimed to have an important impact on learners’ reading comprehension because it can help them analyze, evaluate, construct their thinking, solving problems and reasoning (Ennis, 1989). However, the extent that teachers’ classroom activities contribute to developing students’ critical thinking has rarely been researched. The current case study was conducted with six EFL high school teachers and 10 reading lessons in Vietnam to explore the teachers’ use of questions and to analyze if these questions could facilitate the students’ critical thinking. Classroom observations and the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy were adapted as the research instruments. The study results reveal common types of questions are often used by high school teachers in their reading lessons. Suggestions are made on types of questions that teachers should function more in their class in order to enhance students’ critical thinking

FMI Compliant Approach to Investigate the Impact of Communication to Islanded Microgrid Secondary Control

In multi-master islanded microgrids, the inverter controllers need to share the signals and to coordinate, in either centralized or distributed way, in order to operate properly and to assure a good functionality of the grid. The central controller is used in centralized strategy. In distributed control, Multi-agent system (MAS) is considered to be a suitable solution for coordination of such system. However the latency and disturbance of the network may disturb the communication from central controller to local controllers or among agents or and negatively influence the grid operation. As a consequence, communication aspects need to be properly addressed during the control design and assessment. In this paper, we propose a holistic approach with co-simulation using Functional Mockup Interface (FMI) standard to validate the microgrid control system taking into account the communication network. A use-case of islanded microgrid frequency secondary control with MAS under consensus algorithm is implemented to demonstrate the impact of communication and to illustrate the proposed holistic approach.Comment: Proceedings of the IEEE PES ISGT Asia 2017 conferenc

Learning Pattern Classification Tasks with Imbalanced Data Sets

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Of gels, offgel and off with the gel:development of isoelectric focusing tools for proteomics

In the context of prefractionation methods for proteomics, this work deals mainly with the development of electrophoretic tools for isoelectric focusing of peptides and proteins for the analysis of biological mixtures. In the light of existing devices for isoelectric focusing (IEF), the objective has been to develop multicompartment devices, designed for the IEF of peptides and proteins. The first choice of the OFFGEL for IEF among other techniques is justified by the easy recovery of liquid fractions of peptides, of small volumes, further amenable to liquid chromatography (as a second dimension separation) or mass spectrometry analyses. The resolution is a key point to consider in the design of separation units. Finite element simulation of the isoelectric focusing of peptides by OFFGEL has allowed the design of a multicompartment OFFGEL device for high resolution separation of peptides. The numerical simulations have highlighted the importance of the mobility near pI for the IEF kinetics and the final peak shape. The calculation of the distribution of peptides mobility near pI for three proteomes has allowed concluding on the optimal width of the well to obtain best separation. This mathematical study has also illustrated the high focusing power of the OFFGEL technique as a separation tool for shotgun proteomics application. The design of a multicompartment OFFGEL device was then done, based on the results of the simulations. The reproducibility of the pH gradient was validated, the loading capacity was evaluated for proteins, and a demonstration of the high resolution separation of peptides and proteins from a complex biological mixture was performed. The OFFGEL separation was then integrated in a workflow combining chemical tagging of the cysteine residues. This approach showed that the high resolution of peptide OFFGEL and the added information on the sequence of the peptides permitted a more confident and accurate protein identification. In the context of gel-free proteomics, another separation cell has been designed, that enables performing isoelectric focusing without the need of an immobilized pH gradient (IPG) gel. The novel device has been characterized in terms of performances and has been be applied to a biological sample of Escherichia coli, showing a more rapid separation of proteins than OFFGEL IEF, thus demonstrating its potential for fast proteome prefractionation purposes. An electrochemical cell has also been designed, for the transfer of ionizable species by electrochemistry at the micro-interface of two immiscible electrolytes (µ-ITIES), supported by an IPG gel as the aqueous phase and a small drop of organic phase. This study was initially motivated by the aim of performing online extraction of proteins/peptides during IEF separation. The use of this device for the transfer of model molecules was demonstrated, opening the door to further developments concerning the electrochemical transfer of proteins

Prevalence and determinants of asthma, COPD and allergy to common airborne allergens in northern Vietnam

Introduction: While a large amount of data about the epidemiology of asthma, allergy, COPD, chronic bronchitis and respiratory symptoms are available from developed countries, the information about these diseases and conditions in developing countries in south-east Asia are scarce. There are, however, several reports indicating an increase in asthma and allergy parallel to urbanization in developing countries. The proportion of smoking men in south-east Asia including Vietnam is large. Aim: The aim of this thesis was to assess the prevalence of obstructive airway diseases and symptoms and their relation with demographic data including smoking habits among adults in rural and urban Vietnam. Special interest was paid to asthma, rhinitis, allergic sensitization and COPD. Methods: The study was conducted in two parts. A random sample of subjects aged 21 -70 years were invited; 3008 subjects living in an inner city area of Hanoi, Hoankiem, and 4000 in a rural area of Bavi in northern Vietnam. An internationally used questionnaire was delivered by field workers to the study subjects. From the questionnaire responders, a randomly selected sample of 750 subjects from each of the two areas was invited to the second part of the study. The second part consisted of clinical examinations including structured interview, dynamic spirometry, skin prick testing (SPT) and bronchial provocation testing with methacholine. The SPT panel included ten common indoor and outdoor allergens. For the structured interview a modified GA 2 LEN study questionnaire was used. The spirometry followed the American Thoracic Society guidelines and East Asian reference values were used. COPD was defined by using the fixed ratio of FEV1/FVC < 0.7. Results: The response rate to the questionnaire was 92% in Bavi and 70% in Hoankiem. Of men in Bavi 67.8% (Hoankiem 49.7%; p < 0.001) were smokers, while of women 4.2% were smokers in Hoankiem (Bavi 1.2%; p < 0.001). The prevalence of ever having had asthma was in Hoankiem 5.6% (Bavi 3.9%; p = 0.003) with no major gender difference. The most common symptom was longstanding cough (Hoankiem 18.1%, Bavi 12.0%; p < 0.001) followed by sputum production, while the prevalence of symptoms common in asthma was considerably lower. Respiratory symptoms were slightly more common in men than women. Allergic rhinitis ever or chronic nasal symptoms were reported by 50.2%. The prevalence of allergic rhinitis was considerably higher in the urban area compared to the rural, 29.6% vs 10.0% (p<0.001). Allergic rhinitis ever and chronic nasal symptoms were both significantly associated with asthma and respiratory symptoms (p<0.001). Exposure to gas, dust or fumes at work was significantly associated with all rhinitis conditions. No major gender differences were found, and smoking was not significantly associated with the nasal conditions. The participation rate in the clinical part was 46%. The representativeness of the participants was good as no statistical difference in prevalence of symptoms was found between the participants and all responders in the questionnaire survey. Of men 36.9% and of women 31.0% (n.s.) had positive SPT to at least one allergen. The most common sensitizer was the storage mite, Blomia tropicalis (men 27.7%; women 18.7%, p = 0.013). Sensitization to mites and cockroach were common (26.1%; 13.2%), and was strongly associated with allergic rhinitis. Young age, male sex and occupational exposure to gas, dust and fumes were risk factors for allergic sensitization to mites or cockroach. A significant positive association between the number of positive SPT reactions and airway hyper-reactivity was found. The overall prevalence of COPD was 7.1% (men 10.9%; women 3.9%), and the prevalence increased considerably by age. The distribution of COPD by disease severity was 12.5% severe or very severe COPD (FEV1<50% of predicted), 40% moderate COPD (FEV1 ≥50 <80% of pred.) and 47.5% mild COPD (FEV1≥80% of pred.). Among men with COPD all but one was current or ex-smokers, while the women with COPD were all never smokers. Among men, COPD was strongly related to the number of pack-years of tobacco consumption and a half of smokers aged ≥60 years had developed COPD. Conclusions: The prevalence of asthma in adults may have increased in both urban and rural Vietnam, as the few previous estimates have found 2% of adults having asthma. The majority of men were smokers versus a few percent of women. A half of the studied population had rhinitis conditions with allergic rhinitis being more common in the urban area, however, a difference in the knowledge about what allergy is may have contributed to this urban-rural difference. The pattern and prevalence of allergic sensitizers conforms to results from other areas with a similar climate. Taking into account the young population of Vietnam, the prevalence of COPD must be considered as high particularly among smoking men. Except increasing age and a previous history of asthma, no other risk factors for COPD among women could be demonstrate

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